Foam filled front tire on F mowing deck

[JOHNTHOMAS]

I've replaced the front tires and rims on my F decks a few times over the years and different Fs. Learned the bolts holding the rod holding the tire rim on to the deck would break and replaced them with hardened steel bolts. After wheel falling off and running over tire/rim.
Had a tire deflate on me last mowing season and I just kept mowing. Sort of chewed the tire up. I have a new tire to put on the rim but decided to try foaming a tire/rim that had fallen off a couple years ago and had cut the tire in 3 or 4 places. I filled the tire with home insulating foam till it ran/squirted out all the cut places. Let it dry, cut big hunks of dried insulation off and started mowing. I've mowed with it two mowings now and it looks like a new tire running on the front now. How long will it last? Don't know but I'll keep going with it and if/when it gives up the ghost I'll put the new tire or have the tire shop install the new tire on the rim and go with that till it dies or leaks and then I'll foam it.
Any way, the foam filled tire is holding up well at this point and doing it's job as well as the other one on the other side of the deck.:cool2:

 

[golfbum]

You know, John, someone makes a foam product that is made for tires. But you must not have had a can of that sitting in your shop. I assume you squirted the foam into the tire valve, which mean since there is not a lot of pressure in the can, the tire beads must be sealed on each side. Tubeless tire I guess? Also, there has to be a hole in the tire large enough to let the air escape. This will be interesting to read future reports about how the "great stuff" holds up as the summer progresses.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

You know, John, someone makes a foam product that is made for tires. But you must not have had a can of that sitting in your shop. I assume you squirted the foam into the tire valve, which mean since there is not a lot of pressure in the can, the tire beads must be sealed on each side. Tubeless tire I guess? Also, there has to be a hole in the tire large enough to let the air escape. This will be interesting to read future reports about how the "great stuff" holds up as the summer progresses.

Tubeless tires with several cuts from mowing blade when I ran over the tire/rim. I pulled back a cut and squirted until foam squirted out of the three or so other cuts. After it dried/hardened up I broke off the exterior pieces of foam. So far two 3 hour mowing sssions on rough yard has wore off all exterior signs of foam. I saw where others had done the home foaming on you tube with much bigger tires than the ittle ones on the front of my mowing deck. They had to do refills to top off some of them later. I'll report results later in The mowing season.

 

[jcummins]

I've got a new Tire and tube in the barn to replace one that has a large gash in it with duck tape around the tire. Those tires should come from factory as a solid non air type tire. Keep us posted.

 

[Sigarms]

John

I put some flat free tires on your old 3060 after having to have those orginal tires keep leaking on me. There was a discussion here in the past on that on this topic, just can't find it right now.

I believe I paid about $100 for both front tires. I probably have 70 hours on them now without any issues. Do keep them well greased after each mowing session.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

John

I put some flat free tires on your old 3060 after having to have those orginal tires keep leaking on me. There was a discussion here in the past on that on this topic, just can't find it right now.

I believe I paid about $100 for both front tires. I probably have 70 hours on them now without any issues. Do keep them well greased after each mowing session.

Where did you get the flat free tires? Did you throw your old tires away?

 

[Sigarms]

No, didn't throw the old tires away.

I got the flat free tires online from "ken jone tires" (still have the shipping box with the old F tires in it).

I have the receipt stored electronically somewhere, just forgot what name I filed it under. If you do a search here and have the time, I believe I mentioned the exact model tire I picked up.

I run on some pretty rough terrain out back on some of the fields, and as mentioned, other than greasing them well after each mowing session, they have held up pretty good (I believe someone else in that same old thread on the topic mentioned they only got about 50 hrs out of theirs before they had issues).

Found it:cool2:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ssue-lost-pin-3.html?highlight=Ken+jones+tire

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Up date to foam filled front tire of F deck. ......Tire has finally gone to tire heaven or ****. Fell apart but got a year out of it. Having some bad cutting of grass issues and thinking it may be possible it's caused by the bad front tire. Found my "new" tire from when I bought one a few years ago. I finally noticed the rims of these tires come apart in by removing 4 nuts. The new tire went on the one side of rim and then attached the other side of the rim back on and was ready to install it on my mowing deck but I noticed no fill valve. Looked at another old cut rim from the past that had a decent tire mounted on it with fill valve. Took it apart with the handy craftsman battery drill/impact and the fill valve was connected to a tube! So took the damaged side of that rim off and threw it away and attached the other side and tightened the nuts back down. I ordered two gallons of slime which has arrived. I'm going to slime both front tires on my F mowing deck to as full as I can get them and then add air to stated pounds level and go forth. Also same one front blade is now spinning freely and not cutting (Just installed 3 new blades recently and the cut has been as bad as old blades). Have some blue Loctite coming and going to Loctite the blade bolt this time. Also found owners manual for F deck and it has two new cupped washers in the bag!!!!:cool2: I'll add them to the blade that keeps coming loose and see what happens. I don't like doing two or three things different at the same time so not know which "fix" actually did the trick but I'm going to this time.
I've avoided Slime for years to the one front BX tire that goes down and always tubed them but I've now slimed both drive wheels on my F since they both started (a year apart) leaking down and I couldn't find the air leak. Both are staying aired up now.

 

[Tony H]

I would have thought the Ride would have been too hard. I figured the machine would hit hard on the terrain and you would need a Kidney belt. I just put Tubes in my weepy tires

 

[hawkeye08]

My BIL says they slime all their bikes, ATVs, etc due to "goatheads" which are plentiful where they live. We have not had the problems here but likely someday I will join the slimed crowd.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

I would have thought the Ride would have been too hard. I figured the machine would hit hard on the terrain and you would need a Kidney belt. I just put Tubes in my weepy tires

The tires are on the front mounted deck sticking out in front of the Kubota so the deck probably would do some bouncing at high speeds with the hard foam but probably not with all slime fill. The deck is independent of the machine connected with pins that allow deck to ride on it's wheels so doesn't affect the machine ride. I did put some slime in the drive wheels due to slow leaks but it doesn't harden up so doesn't affect machine ride.

 

[ironpen]

I ordered mine with foam filled deck tires (done locally). Very satisfied and have no excess bouncing.

 

[628pm]

When I ordered my f2690 last week I talked to my dealer about the discussion about the front mower tires, he said if I have a problem he has a source to replace the tires with solid tires. I will contact him about the tires.

 

[cqaigy2]

I've use solid, square profile tires on my front mounded "Brush Hog". I had problems pushing tires off, tearing valve stems out and punctures. The square profile seemed to reduce the push off tendency. I bought a mounting cone for the press to put the tires back on the rims. Works well for me.

 

[roadhunter]

Never ceases to amaze me how many people think foam is ridgid and makes equipment ride rough. That' simply not accurate as the foam is actually more like a rubber consistency. Great way to get ballast and avoid every having to deal with a flat tire as well but it's not cheap.

 

[628pm]

My dealer said he sales the solid tires for 35.00 a tire

 

[Sigarms]

I probably have 70 hours on them now without any issues. Do keep them well greased after each mowing session.

Over 150 hours and my "flat free" deck tires are still holding up. Do grease them well after each mowing session.

 

[roadhunter]

My dealer said he sales the solid tires for 35.00 a tire

Did he say people complain about them due to the rough ride?

Some people seem to think solid tires ride rough but I suspect the only difference you notice is never having a flat.

 

[ironpen]

I was speaking of the tires on the deck. My tires on the tractor are air filled. I noted they were riding pretty rough initially. I checked the pressure and the dealer sent them with 40 to 45 pounds pressure. I lowered this to about 20 and it made a LOT of difference.

 

[628pm]

Did he say people complain about them due to the rough ride?

Some people seem to think solid tires ride rough but I suspect the only difference you notice is never having a flat.

No we just talked about mower tires going flat and how sometimes the wheels pins come off causing wheels to be run over. (Those issues were discussed on the forum, I don't have my F2690 yet)